Marija Ivkovic, Photographer

Marija Ivkovic, Photographer, Online Portfolio
http://www.marijaivkovic.com/

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Gary Paitre, Digital Dude

Gary Paitre, Online Portfolio

http://www.gary-web.com/

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Great design blogs

The following blogs contribute excellent content on a regular basis, featuring work and topics on an array of creative issues. Feed your creative brain.

What are some of your favorite industry blogs? Share your comments.

Kelvin Murray, Photographer, London

Kelvin Murray, Photographer, London
http://www.kelvinmurray.com/

Kelvin is a multi award-winning photographer who has been in the business for 20 years. His latest self-promotional piece,”Makeover Madness” is a concertina booklet with images on one side and a pink color on the other side. Kelvin says, “Around each booklet is a slip of paper saying “makeover madness” and it is hand positioned to cover the model’s breasts. We wanted to reach as many people as possible with a refreshing idea.”

Kelvin was just awarded Honorable Mention for this piece in the 2009 PDN Photographers’ Self-Promo Awards. http://www.pdngallery.com/contests/selfpromo/2009/

Video Tutorial – Grids in InDesign

Go to the Video Tutorials page to view this tutorial.

Mark Burrier, Portfolio Books

Mark Burrier, Illustrator & Designer

http://www.markburrier.com

Mark Burrier is an illustrator and designer. His work has received awards from the Society of Illustrators, Communication Arts, Print, American Illustration, 3×3 Magazine, HOW Magazine, STEP Inside Design, and the American Advertising Federation. Mark’s illustrations have been shown in galleries in New York, Los Angeles, Tokyo, and Seattle. His comics have been published internationally and have appeared in various books including Kramers Ergot. In 2007, his comic Noose was nominated for an Ignatz Award and was named “Best Comic Book” by the Baltimore City Paper. Born in Myersville, Maryland, Mark currently lives in McLean, Virginia with his wife and their ever-accumulating book collection.

When I asked Mark how his books were made he said, “Both books have 2 color silkscreen covers and xeroxed insides. I used a printer for the covers and assembled them all myself. When doing
small print runs, there’s such a cost savings doing it that way.”

The Lucky Ones gathers drawings, notes, lists, and scribbles from my last 2 sketchbooks which encompass spring/summer of 2005. Appeared in Print, HOW Magazine, and STEP Inside Design.

54 pages, 5.25 x 7.5″, 2 color silkscreened cover on heavy cream stock, edition of 200

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The companion to last year’s The Lucky Ones, this sketchbook collection gathers drawings from 4 notebooks during 2006-2007. Appeared in the Print 2008 Regional Design Annual.

60 pages, 5.25 x 7.5″, 2 color silkscreened cover on French uncoated paper, stamped wraparound band, edition of 200

Mark’s books are available for purchase on his site.

To Internship or Not To Internship

Internships
by Danielle Currier, Associate Professor and Author

Internships can offer a whole host of opportunities for students. One of the big reasons it’s tough for students to gain employment, even in entry-level positions, is that they lack “experience”. Internships can help provide that experience – a tremendous advantage upon graduation. If you’re successful at an internship you’ll gain new skills, new understandings, a solid reference, a new professional network to tap into and perhaps even some work for your portfolio.

Internships provide students with first hand opportunities to learn about the creative and business strategies vital to our industry – through simple osmosis and by learning from other, more seasoned professionals. Working as part of a larger team and learning to understand and appreciate the varied professional roles involved with a project can be invaluable. And there’s simply no substitute for working with a real client – learning to deal with creative briefs, client presentations, schedules, budgets, deadlines, and of course client feedback. It’s an opportunity to bolster your portfolio with real professional work – something if done well can be quite impressive. Internship opportunities can also bolster your confidence – it allows you the opportunity to try out your skills, flex your muscles and see what it’s really like out there. This helps prepare you for what to expect upon graduation and makes the prospect of entering the “real” world a lot less scary. Internships also provide you with a great way to network, something that you’ll find really useful when looking for a job. Many students even gain full-time employment at their internship site after graduation.

Be Selective
With any internship you want to try to get the most out of the experience. This means that where you intern and with who is crucial. You’ll need to do your homework and really investigate potential sites. Check out each site’s website. Ask around – you want to find a company with a positive reputation – reputable and good at what they do. Really take a look at the type and quality of work being done. Read their philosophy statement if they have one. If you don’t know the agency that well make sure you check out the job site in person. People are always very busy so if your “interview” occurs over the phone ask if you can stop by briefly to say hello. There’s always the occasional internship that looks really good on paper, but when you arrive at the office it’s in some guy’s basement.

Don’t Be the Errand Boy
You also want to make sure that you’ll have an opportunity to do real work that’s relevant to your field. It’s pretty much a waste of your time if you’re fetching coffee and donuts. Don’t be shy about letting them know what kind of experience you’re hoping for. This doesn’t mean that you’ll be handed a dream project and told to design or photograph your heart out. But, it should mean that you are involved in meaningful learning experiences. I recommend that you and your potential immediate supervisor discuss 3 goals for your internship experience – what you might like to learn and be involved with. Let them know where your interest lie, but also ask for suggestions. After all, you’re pretty green and probably don’t know what all the various roles, responsibilities and opportunities even are. Ask how you can benefit the company and yourself at the same time.

You Need A Mentor
A truly successful internship experience requires that there’ll be at least some investment made on the part of the company. Be aware that while you’re doing the company a service by providing essentially free work, there should be a give and take on their part as well. Someone needs to mentor you, show you the ropes and spend at least some time including you in a project or two. While you’ve hopefully got great skills and abilities, there’s still a lot you won’t know. Don’t be afraid to ask (at an appropriate time). The best experiences I’ve seen students have are when they are mentored, involved and made to feel like a part of the team. Ask to work with someone who does what you want to do. It doesn’t work well if your immediate supervisor is the HR director and what you want to do is design. You need to communicate with the right people.

Paid or Not Paid
On a similar note, while it’s great to land a paid internship there are some downsides. If a company is paying you they’ll most likely want you to be doing billable work (likely production work) that justifies the money. It sort of defeats the purpose if you spend the internship doing Photoshop color corrections. It means that you may not get invaluable opportunities to learn from situations that are less tangible – like sitting in on a client presentation or shadowing someone for a day to learn what they do or brainstorm with the team.

Where to Look
Ask around – faculty, staff, your Dad’s friend who works in advertising
Network – Get involved with industry organizations – you’ll meet people who know people
Email and Cold Call – Look through job opportunity sites, award sites, industry mags, etc to find out who’s doing what in your neighborhood. If you find an exciting place – don’t be shy about calling them up and asking. You’d be surprised how many students get great internship opportunity just because they happened to ask at the right time. And most big agencies have internship programs.

Be Prepared
Have your portfolio in tip-top shape and ready to go. Be sure to have at least a pdf with samples of your work that you can email right way. Make sure your resume is perfect. If you get a response – act eager and excited about the opportunity!

What are your internship stories?

Video Test

New Tutorial Video – Testing iShowU screen capture application. Go to the “Video Tutorials” page to view the entire tutorial.

Advertising Agencies

Looking to land a creative position or internship in one of the big advertising agencies? Check out these top agency earners.

BBDO
McCann Erickson
Goodby Silverstein
DraftFCB
MediaCom
Interbrand
Digitas
Rapp
Publicis
RPA
Saatchi & Saatchi
Euro RSCG
Doner
Jack Morton
Haggin Marketing
Y&R Advertising
JWT
Richards Group
R/GA
Razorfish
OgilvyOne
DDB
Hill Holliday
Mullen
Carlson Marketing
Deutsch
Arnold Worldwide
Leo Burnett
Cramer-Krasselt
TMP Worldwide
Frog Design
Ogilvy & Mather
Wieden & Kennedy
TBWA
Crispin Porter & Bogusky
Campbell Mithun
Tribal DDB
Grey
Universal McCann
Arc Worldwide
Sapient
AKQA
Ryan Partnership
Kirshenbaum Bond
Organic

Who’s missing? Comment and add to list.

Resources & Links

Step 2: Brands

Brand
Wheeler, Alina. Designing Brand Identity: A Complete Guide to Creating, Building, and Maintaining Strong Brands. Wiley, 2006.

Ogilvy, David. Ogilvy on Advertising. Vintage; 1st Vintage Books ed edition, 1985.

Bedbury, Scott. A New Brand World: Eight Principles for Achieving Brand Leadership in the Twenty-First Century. Penguin, 2003

Inspiration
Meggs, Phillip B. and Alston W. Purvis. Meggs’ History of Graphic Design. Wiley, 2005

Brand Book
http://about.skype.com/brand/

Styleguides
http://www.behance.net/Search?main-search=Logo&realm=44

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Step 3A: Cover Design

Visual Reference
Heller, Steven and Seymour Chwast. Graphic Style: From Victorian to Digital. Harry N. Abrams, 2001

http://www.frankchimero.com/

Moodboards
http://www.imgspark.com/

Color
http://kuler.adobe.com/

http://www.colourlovers.com/

Typography
http://www.myfonts.com/WhatTheFont/

http://www.davidairey.com/typography-tips-and-advice-for-graphic-design-students/

Icongraphy
Shepard Fairey
http://obeygiant.com/
http://themoment.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/10/graphic-content-shepard-fairey-is-not-a-crook/

Andy Warhol
http://www.warhol.org/
http://www.warholfoundation.org/

Micah Wright
http://micahwright.com/

Copyright
Editorial Photographers (EP) Resources
http://www.editorialphoto.com/copyright/

US Copyright Office:
http://www.copyright.gov/

AIGA Center for Practice Management:
http://cpm.aiga.org/legal_issues/copyright-basics-for-graphic-designers

Fair Use:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use

http://www.copyright.com/

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Step 3B: Materials and Forms

(Book Binding Resources: See Appendix Step: 5)

Inkjet Printable Fabrics and Materials
Jacquard Inkjet Fabric Systems
http://www.inkjetfabrics.com/

Pabric
http://www.pabric.com/

Papersource: Inkjet Linen bookcloth
http://www.paper-source.com/cgi-bin/paper/kits/bookcloth.html

Inkaid coatings
http://www.inkaid1.com/

Color Management

Andrew Rodney
http://www.digitaldog.net/

Luminous Landscape tutorials and forums
http://www.luminous-landscape.com

NAPP- National Association of Photoshop Professionals
http://www.photoshopuser.com/

Book Printing and Binding

Apple Photo Books
http://www.apple.com/ilife/iphoto/print-products.html

Shutterfly
http://www.shutterfly.com/

Kodak Gallery
http://www.kodakgallery.com/

Snapfish
http://www.snapfish.com/

Blurb
http://www.blurb.com

Shared Ink
http://www.sharedink.com

LuLu
http://www.lulu.com/

VioVio
http://www.viovio.com/

Asukabook
http://asukabook.com/k

Paperchase
http://www.paperchase.net/

Pitko Photobooks
http://www.pikto.com/

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Step 4: Layout Design

Layout
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/02/03/clear-and-effective-communication-in-web-design/

Cullen, Kristen. Layout Workbook: A Real-World Guide to Building Pages in Graphic Design. Rockport Publishers, 2007

Elam, Kimberly. Grid Systems: Principles of Organizing Type (Design Briefs). Princeton Architectural Press, 2004

Type
http://www.writedesignonline.com/resources/design/rules/type.html

Hollis, Richard. Swiss Graphic Design: The Origins and Growth of an International Style, 1920-1965. Yale University Press, 2006

Elam, Kimberly. Typographic Systems of Design. Princeton Architectural Press, 2007

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Step 5: Book Construction

Bookbinding Materials and Supplies
http://www.papersource.com

http://www.hollanders.com/

http://www.talasonline.com/

http://www.lightimpressions.com/

High Quality Printing Paper Suppliers
http://www.inkjetart.com

http://www.lexjet.com

http://www.calumetphoto.com

Online Resources
Book Arts Web: http://www.philobiblon.com/

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Step 6: Digital and Online Portfolios
Interactivity
Shedroff, Nathan. Experience Design. Waite Group Press, 2001

http://www.aec.at/index_en.php

Pre-made web templates
http://www.foliolink.com/

http://www.livebooks.com/

http://wordpress.org/

http://www.warmforestflash.com/

http://www.coolhomepages.com/

Development Resources
www.computerarts.co.uk/

www.lynda.com

http://www.tutorialmagazine.com/

http://www.computerarts.co.uk/tutorials/new_media/stunning_showreels

Optimization
http://www.cartoonsolutions.com/store/catalog/Timing-for-Animation-sp-7.html

http://www.digital-web.com/articles/designing_for_the_web/

http://www.designerstoolbox.com/designresources/safearea/

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Step 7: Promotional Materials

Design Competitions
http://www.adobe.com/education/adaa/

http://www.howdesign.com/competitions/

http://www.aaf.org/

http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm/competitions

http://www.commarts.com/competitions

http://www.printmag.com/

http://www.graphis.com/

http://www.liaawards.com/

http://www.adclub.org/

http://www.webbyawards.com/

http://www.computerarts.co.uk/competitions

http://www.oneclub.org/oc/press/?id=77

http://tdc.org/

Photography Competitions
http://www.pdnonline.com

http://www.commarts.com/competitions

http://www.graphis.com/

Photographic Resource Center

Cubic Studio, Brazil

Portfolio Website
Cubic Studio, Brazil
http://www.cubic.com.br/

The design concept for this portfolio site utilizes pictograms as a means to organize content and navigate.

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Submit A Portfolio or Promotional Piece

Got an online or print portfolio you’d like to share? How about a promotional piece?

Send me an email with either a url or jpegs of the piece to have your work considered as a feature on the site.

Email me at:
danielle@noplasticsleeves.com

Best, Danielle Currier
Author, No Plastic Sleeves: The Complete Portfolio Guide for Photographer & Designers